Andrea Guerra, CEO of Italian family-owned eyewear company Luxottica, is said to be leaving the company “after differences of opinion” with founder and chairman Leonardo del Vecchio,
the
Financial Times
reported.
Shares in the company, whose brands include Oakley and Ray-Ban, dropped sharply on the news, the
FT
report noted.
Guerra reportedly disagreed with del Vecchio, 79 over Luxottica's deal with Google to design, develop and distribute Google Glass, the
FT
article said.
Del Vecchio, who founded the company in 1958, hired Guerra from Indesit, another Italian family company, in 2004 to succeed him as CEO, “a rare example in Italy of a family patriarch handing over to a trained manager after the first generation,” the
FT
article said.
When Guerra was hired, del Vecchio gave 9.6 million shares in the company to senior management as stock options. The last of those was exercised this year, according to the
FT
report. (Source:
Financial Times
, Aug. 20, 2014.)
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